Chapter Seventeen
Link leapt out of the way of his adversary, trying to gage what he was up against. The being was swift, but not swift enough that it could cause him problems in this fight. Its weapon looked very dangerous – Link decided to keep his eyes on that especially – but, other than the chain mail and helmet, it had no ways of defense.
The deformed man, seeing that it had missed Link, turned to face him and slowly moved forward, seeming to lock his eyes with Link's. The young man targeted his foe and began jumping to the side, the Back Slice in mind, quickly circling the foe and slashing out his weapon.
The chain mail was showy, but weak; Link could hear it cracking as he drew back his sword and nimbly skipped away, forever keeping his eyes on his opponent, his pulse sounding in his eardrums. Link, throwing caution to the winds, leapt forward and began wildly hacking and stabbing. He managed to get in three blows before the enemy swept his sword and caught Link, throwing his across the room.
He recovered quickly, springing to his feet and wiping away a trickle of blood from his forehead. Link charged up to the man and executed the Shield Attack; as soon as the foe was stunned, Link performed the Helm Splitter, cracking down ferociously on his enemy's helmet. He leapt to his foe's back and hit away at the chain mail again. He got in five strikes before a thundering punch knocked him away, slamming him into the wall. Link jumped to his feet and rushed unexpectedly at the enemy. He delivered a blow straight into his adversary's stomach, and the chainmail shattered, dropping to the ground.
He looked down at his chainmail, surprised, and Link took advantage of this moment. He hacked away fiercely, causing the deformed man to howl in rage and pain; finally, Link's sword hit hard enough to send it to the ground. He leapt into the air and used the Ending Blow to defeat this creature. Link sent it straight through his foe's heart, which released a screeching wail, much like that of a dying Poe, and jumped away, withdrawing the Master Sword. It wriggled in pain and, finally, burst into a cloud of smoke. The grates that had flown down over the only exit opened up noisily.
When the smoke cleared, a handsome man appeared there. His face was lined and his brown hair was lightly grayed, and he looked a little beaten, but his chest was moving up and down slowly. The creature Link had just defeated was indeed a deformed man – this man, now no longer deformed – and, of course…lying next to the man, shining innocently, was the second Mirror half.
Link, while excited that he had found the other Shard, quickly ran to the man's side, sitting down on his knees. "Are you okay?" he asked breathlessly, peering at the man. He looked as though he had been knocked unconscious, but his eyes slowly flickered open and he looked confusedly at Link.
"Who are you?" he muttered, slowly sitting up and clutching a hand to his forehead. "Oh, my head…"
"My name is Link," said the young man. "I…do you know what just happened?"
The man turned to Link and shook his head. "No. Not really. I…" He looked around. "I was wounded, and came upon here accidentally. That—that King Bulblin…he saved my life, in return for my services."
"What were you doing here?" asked Link curiously. "Why did you even come to this godforsaken desert?"
The man cast him a weary look. "Why did you?" He did not wait for Link to answer, though, and began his own story. "I wanted to do something to stop the growing threat of evil. I set out, promising my wife and mother I'd do something, and I told them I'd come back as soon as possible. Goddesses…that must have been twenty years ago! I don't know how I came here, exactly, or what attacked me. All I know is that I woke up and was in King Bulblin's care. He told me he had saved me, and he would continue taking care of me if I stayed here and did work for him. I was so delirious and wounded, I guess I agreed right away. I didn't really do much except wait here, but a little under a year ago, King Bulblin gave me this – " he gestured to the Mirror Shard – "and told me to take care of it. However, I was…transformed by it. It seemed to take over me. The last thing I truly remember is looking into it, looking at my reflection, and…" He shook his head slowly. "Then I was here, on the ground."
Link sighed, putting his fists on his thighs. "The Mirror Shard changed you with its power. I…I defeated the evil form it turned you into. That seems to be a pattern nowadays." He gently rubbed his temples, feeling a small headache coming on.
"King Bulblin told me to keep that thing safe so he could find the other half," muttered the man. "Do you work with King Bulblin?"
"No," replied Link grimly, feeling anger bubble his blood. "I did, but now I refuse to." He leaned forward to take the Mirror Shard, prepared to continue through this underground passage and possibly find King Bulblin – but he'd much rather make his way into the Twilight Realm – when a horribly familiar, scrambled-like cry came. He looked up to see three Bullbos come in through the formerly grated door, each with three Bulblins on it; they rushed at him, carrying clubs and bows.
Link leapt to his feet, as did the man. The scimitar that had been property of the foe was still on the ground, and the man snatched it and. Link took out his bow and nocked an arrow in; he loosed it and hit one Bulblin. He shot continuously and the man, who was also under attack, fought against the Bulblins. There was one Bullbo left with two Bulblins on its back; Link jumped after it, and more hoofsteps came into earshot; he cut down the remaining Bulblins and turned around to see King Bulblin, riding on Lord Bullbo, scooping up the Mirror Shard and then exiting through the door, which did not shut after him.
"He took the Mirror Shard!" shouted Link furiously. He leapt onto one of the Bullbos, and the man took another one. Link charged through it, with the man following him, and came immediately to a smooth passageway that wound downwards. Link could hear his pounding blood, the hooves ricocheting off of the stone walls, and the words of the Sages: to the sacred race…the sand….He whipped his head around with a start to see the man a few feet behind him. "Chisstron…?" he gasped, hardly daring to believe it. His voice was too quiet, though, to be heard, and all thoughts of this man's identity were dashed from his mind when he reached the bottom of the smooth stairwell. There was a large hole in the ground in front of him, large enough for King Bulblin to get through but not Lord Bullbo; the Bullbo stood to the side, looking very innocent and bored.
Link dismounted his Bullbo and waited for the man, assumedly Chisstron. He copied Link and got off his Bullbo.
"Before we go down," panted Link, "I have to ask: what is your name?"
"Chisstron," replied the man as they slid down the hole. "My name is Chisstron."
A million of possible things to say to him swept his mind. "I know your sister-in-law"; "I know your daughter"; "I know your mother"; "Your wife has passed away". But could he say them? Could he really give all of that shocking information to him? From the way Chisstron acted, he seemed clueless as to his fatherhood…did he even know about Eir's existence?
Link was about to say something when he found himself falling on a hard, stone floor. The room he was in was large, round and rectangular, just like the room he had fought Chisstron's mutated form in. He looked around to find King Bulblin, and did: but he, too, had been transformed by the power of the Twilight Shard. He no longer looked remotely like King Bulblin.
It stood tall, achieving heights that no man could reach through natural means. It was muscular and scaly, with fiery eyes. Its skull was oval-like in shape, opening at one end to form a snout. Vicious fangs curved out of the upper lip, and from the back of the head came terrible, bony horns, tinged with yellow, hooking downwards and past its long neck. Its body was sinewy, with three horrible claws on each of its four legs, its third claw on the back of the ankle. On its back were grossly huge, black and leathery wings, currently folded against its body. Its long, sinewy tail thrashed back and forth, the six blades caused gouge marks in the ground.
"What is that?" croaked Link, but Chisstron did not respond. The two merely drew their blades and looked at each other uneasily, prepared for a difficult battle. It was the Twilit Servant, Welles.
I named the creature "Welles". I don't know why. Because I wanted to? That sounds like a good excuse.
